Space Trek: Background Scenes from Star Trek

For this morning's meditation, I bring you Space Trek, the self-described blog of "the quiet despair of the Starship Enterprise." Featuring HD screen captures from the original Star Trek series, it presents a strangely bleak look at the ship, only occasionally showing crew members. It's a bit like Eye on Springfield is for The Simpsons, except kinda...well...blank. Here are a few lonely shots to get you started:

The public’s fascination with Adolf Hitler extends even to the underwear he wore. A pair of his monogrammed boxers was recently auctioned off for more than $6700, according to the International Business Times. The lucky new owner is an unnamed citizen who apparently does not want to be publicly associated with Hitler's drawers.

The undershorts, sold by Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland, were reportedly left behind after the dictator stayed at the Parkhotel Graz in Austria in April 1938. They may have been sent out for cleaning and then forgotten. (Sadly, this means we don't get to laugh at Hitler's skid marks.) The family who owned the hotel kept the underpants in pristine condition for almost 80 years. According to the IBTimes, the auctioneer who sold the boxers apparently screened potential buyers for any far-right political affiliations, ensuring that they would go to someone more interested in mocking the Führer's choice of butt-covering than paying tribute to the genocidal fascist.

The striped white linen is monogrammed with Hitler’s initials. The shorts are “surprisingly large,” according to the auction catalog, and they have loops sewn onto either side of the waistband that may have attached to the pants. Hitler was a notoriously shabby dresser, and liked to wear his clothing extra loose.

The fascination with the underpants of the Third Reich goes beyond just Hitler’s intimate apparel. The lacy underwear of his longtime mistress, Eva Braun, was sold for almost $4000 at a UK auction in November 2016. Maybe stamping out fascism requires the same technique as overcoming a fear of public speaking—you just have to imagine everyone in their underwear.

Vlad Korneev is a man with an obsession. He's spent years collecting technical and industrial objects from the last century—think iron lungs, World War II gas masks, 1930s fans, and vintage medical prostheses. At his Designpanoptikum in Berlin, which bills itself (accurately) as a "surreal museum of industrial objects," Korneev arranges his collection in fascinating, if disturbing, assemblages. (Atlas Obscura warns that it's "half design museum, half horror house of imagination.") Recently, the Midnight Archive caught up with Vlad for a special tour and some insight into the question visitors inevitably ask—"but what is it, really?" You can watch the full video below.